'Norma Rae' Dead at 68 After Struggle With Her Insurance Company to Get Chemo

[Whoa_Nelly]

Source: C&L

It's the death of an American icon, a working-class woman who stood up for her rights and unionized her workplace. And wouldn't you know it? She fought the mills, but she couldn't make her insurance company do the decent thing until it was too late:

<snip>
As Daily Kos blogger hissyspit points out, last year Sutton gave an interview to the press where she described a struggle with her health insurer over treatment. The Times-News in Burlington, North Carolina, wrote in 2008:

went two months without possible life-saving medications because her insurance wouldn’t cover it, another example of abusing the working poor, she said.

“How in the world can it take so long to find out (whether they would cover the medicine or not) when it could be a matter of life or death,” she said. “It is almost like, in a way, committing murder.”

She eventually received the medication, but the cancer is taking a toll on her strong will and solid frame.

Read more: http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/norma-rae-dead-68-after-two-year-stru

[Liberty Belle]

1. She was a role model to so many, and I am sad and angry at this news.

[JuniperLea]

2. It's not "almost like, in a way... "

It IS murder!

This is incredibly sad on so many levels.

[Lugnut]

33. Without a doubt.

It's cold-blooded bottom-line murder.

[valerief]

51. Absolutely. Legalized murder. nt

[xxqqqzme]

64. The functioning

death panels.

[Solly Mack]

3. K&R

[Angry Dragon]

4. “It is almost like, in a way, committing murder.”

and that is what it is, MURDER
and as long as corporations want to be treated as people then
they should be arrested

[RaleighNCDUer]

63. I will be happy to treat corporations like people

when they start treating people like people.

[underpants]

5. Wow that really tells you how far we have fallen as a nation

Norma Rae was viciously countered by business groups (electing Reagan) because the people were just getting too much freedom.

[MichiganVote]

6. They killed her. Pure and simple. The insurance company killed her.

[florida08]

7. homicide by insurance fraud

x( country is full of sadists

[Javaman]

49. corporate insurance fraud...

I wouldn't put it past those bastards if they purposely delayed the meds so they could get rid of "one of those loud mouth union people".

I put nothing past them.

[aquart]

8. Murdered by her HEALTH insurance company.

[valerief]

52. I refuse to call it health insurance. It's medical insurance when it works and a racket when it

doesn't.

[RufusTFirefly]

9. Bless the child of the workin' man

Bless the child of the workin' man
She knows too soon who she is
And bless the hands of a workin' man
He knows his soul is his

So it goes like it goes and the river flows
And time it rolls right on
And maybe what's good gets a little bit better
And maybe what's bad gets gone

[annabanana]

10. GodDAMN our murderous, criminal "health care" system . . . n/t

[deathrind]

11. It is not...

Almost like...

“It is almost like, in a way, committing murder.”

It is period.

[Dragonfli]

12. A good thing Obama put these companies in charge of Healthcare isn't it?

That'll show 'em! All those forced new clients will confuse them into doing the right thing.:sarcasm:

This is an issue that brings up horrid memories about how they MURDERED my wife with similar tactics.

My wife went off chemo for surgery (this is done to allow their systems to build up a bit so they can take the surgery), it was carefully timed so the tumor in her breast would not grow back to the size it was shrunk from using the chemo.

The surgeon wanted to have a plastic surgeon on the team to avoid mutilating her.

The Insurance companies delayed for three months longer than the planned date before "OKing" the surgery, because of all the extended time, during the last month before the surgery the tumor began to grown back and became even larger than it was before all the torturous chemo she had to endure. It had also metastaticized and grown into the chest wall and her lungs (making the surgery unable to get it all as was the original plan).

This is what happens when you place profits as the sole motivator for those in charge of our healthcare, they murder people to save money.

I will never forgive Obama for perpetuating and even expanding the control of these murderers for profit. People will die because he fell for and pushed for the Insurance enhancement racket bill that was first created by the Heritage Foundation in the 90's, the same plan that Newt Gingrich was pushing as a more "business friendly" option to "Hillary Care"

I will also never forgive those that applauded this enabling of murder for profit plan and that were supporting it oh so well here.

My wife died in '06, but this craven Republican plan enacted by Obama will enable the murders of the wives, husbands, parents, and children of many, many more. All so they can make a profit and he could get a law on the "list" of accomplishments.

I apologize for my tone, but it still causes pain and anger when I hear more accounts of these vultures and the victims they grow rich on.

Hell I wasn't even going to read let alone post for a while because I have grown so sick of all the applauding of evil Republican policies that have recently become the "victories" of the DLC Democrats and other Republicans in (D)rag.

Victories that are applauded here with standing ovations and logic twisting justifications.

I will log of again and this time give myself enough time to handle this trend without as much anger, I had a feeling today was too soon to even read, I will now go back into my seclusion allowing those that love right wing policy to applaud it without my being the source of anger and uncomfortable truths.

[Raine]

19. I'm so sorry

:hug: I don't blame you for being angry. I HATE the insurance companies and to think what they have gained now is infuriating! :argh: :mad: :grr:

[Rhiannon12866]

35. I'm so sorry, too, Dragonfli.

I remember... :hug: O8)

[Tansy_Gold]

44. "Uncomfortable truths" are only uncomfortable for those

who know the truth but refuse to recognize it.

:hug: to you, dragonfli. Your courage, your anger, your hurt are also uncomfortable truths to some. But the truth has a way of sticking around eveen when it is ignored, denied, dismissed. Maybe you will, too.




Tansy Gold, who has given no standing ovations

[SammyWinstonJack]

48. There is no reason for you to apologize for your tone. You have every right to be angry.

And what you said about Obama's giveaway to the blood-sucking murderous health insurance corps. is the truth.

That some here are blind to the facts, is mind boggling.


So sorry about your wife. :hug:

[Javaman]

50. +1000 nt

[deutsey]

54. +1

[barbtries]

59. i'm very sorry for your loss

Dragonfli.
wishing you peace.

[prairierose]

62. There is not need to apologize for your righteous anger....

the medical/insurance industrial complex kills so many every day and you have every right to be angry. I am right there with you. My brother died in 05 for lack of medical care because he was born in this country. We are the only country in the world with a for profit "health care" system. The very idea of a for profit system is immoral and obscene. We are the only industrialized country without universal health care. We are the only country in the world that allows insurance companies to murder its citizens with impunity. And I am right there with you that the fact that no public option was allowed in the so-called health care reform bill was wrong on so many levels. My belief is that dems either have principles and morals or they don't and what I have seen in the last 20 years is that they no longer do. When a D guts the social safety net and destroys FDR's bank regulations, when a D continues 2 or more wars and torture and enables murder by spreadsheet to continue then we are no longer that party of the working man and we either need a new party or we need to make serious changes in the leadership of this one.

:hug:

[area51]

75. +1

Each day, 273 people die due to lack of health care in the U.S.; that's 100,000 deaths per year. It's like multiple 9/11s. Where are the memorials? The outrage? This is not only a moral issue, but a national security issue that we're so vulnerable given that our health care delivery system is so fragmented and dysfunctional.

We need single-payer health care, not a welfare bailout for the serial-killer insurance agencies.

The Affordable Care Act is GingrichCare.

"Subtitle F: Universal Coverage - Requires each citizen or lawful permanent resident to be covered under a qualified health plan or equivalent health care program by January 1, 2005."

"We will never have real reform until people's health stops being treated as a financial opportunity for corporations."

"Employer-based health insurance has always been a bad idea. Your life should not depend on who you work for." -- T. McKeon

"Any proposal that sticks with our current dependence on for-profit private insurers ... will not be sustainable. And the new law will not get us to universal coverage ...." -- T.R. Reid, The Healing of America

"Despite the present hyperbole by its supporters, this latest effort will end up as just another failed reform effort littering the landscape of the last century." --John Geyman, M.D., Hijacked! The Road to Single Payer in the Aftermath of Stolen Health Care Reform

[Still Blue in PDX]

82. I work for an HMO and I would like to think they don't do that sort of thing.

Judging from the internal emails I get, though patient care is ostensibly the most important mission we have, the bottom line is awfully darn important as well.

Thank you for posting. My heart goes out to you and I wish I knew how to make things better.

:hug:

[Poll_Blind]

84. .

:kick:

PB

[emcguffie]

85. Thank you for speaking out. We need to hear it. n/t

[Name removed]

87. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[The Doctor.]

89. You have every right to be angry.

I don't think I'd rest until I found out who was responsible for that decision. I'm just not sure what I'd do with the info.

Your characterization of the health care reform act as 'Obama putting the industry in charge' is entirely incorrect, however. People's lives have already been saved because of this law. It certainly does not go far enough, but it was a step away from letting the industry have everything it wanted, not towards.

[mimitabby]

91. i do hope you sued

i am sorry for your loss.
i have (so far) been extremely pleased with the speed at which my husband is receiving treatment for his cancer. there have been no delays..
i am truly sorry for your loss. if what had happened to your wife happened to my husband he wouldnt have a chance.

[slipslidingaway]

95. No apologies needed from you, our dysfunctional system contributed to your pain...

and no words can ever erase those feelings or bring your wife back.

For now know there are others with you who not be silent and who will not forget.

:hug:

[Name removed]

96. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[GreenPartyVoter]

98. No apology needed here.

[SoapBox]

13. and the GOPBaggers don't want everyone to have health coverage...

Sickening!

Remember folks, just DIE QUICKLY!

And wait until the Five Activist Extremist Judges on the Supreme Court get ahold of the health law.

[JoeyT]

72. She had health coverage.

She had health coverage with the same pack of rotten assholes we're all going to be stuck having health coverage through now. Well, the same pack of rotten assholes we'll be paying for health coverage with, even if we aren't allowed to use it when we need it.

So you might want to, you know, nudge that soap box back behind you, since what you're talking about is a law that delivers us all into the hands of the people that murdered this woman.

[Matariki]

14. Oh god. Something has to give.

"It is almost like, in a way, committing murder."

Not "ALMOST"
Not "IN A WAY"

It's murder. And it really needs to be stopped and punished.

[PatrynXX]

15. That might get the unions to unite

feel like LOTR's here. no can't have the humans unite.. oh no. yes I would call this the Murder of Norma Rae. Moms a couple years younger.. big fan of Norma and the movie. Wonder what Sallie Field would say :( not good news per se. Although if anything came out of it I would hope the unions would unite under one flag for the moment.

[OmahaBlueDog]

16. RIP Norma Rae

;(

[malaise]

17. This is way too sad because it didn't have to happen

:cry:

[WillyT]

18. *&%&^$^*%#^&%$W&%^*#$

:nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke:

:nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke:

:nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke:

:nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke:

:nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke:

:nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke:

[TBF]

20. Looks like pre-meditated murder to me - and they do it to millions. nt

[Raine]

21. Such sad news, it's so unfair for someone who fought so

hard for everyone to have it end this way for her. :-(

[Hissyspit]

22. "Daily Kos blogger hissyspit"

Heh.

[chill_wind]

23. Hey! You're everywhere :-)

:thumbsup:

[Hissyspit]

34. I remember this well. I found an article on her in the local paper

when she died and cross-posted it here and at Daily Kos. (It always annoyed me that I signed up there with a lower-case 'h' instead of my DU upper-case 'H.' I tried to fix it once, but couldn't.)

The posts went to the top of the recommendation lists both places and went viral across the Internet, one of the few times, if not the only time, that that has happened with something I posted. I remember I tried to get in contact with Sutton's relatives her in North Carolina to get more details, but could not.

Here are my original posts:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6531099

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/09/12/781054/-The-Real-Norma-Rae-Died-Yesterday-Insurance-Delayed-Cancer-Medication

[barbtries]

60. yeah i noticed that

familiar name :)

[Drew Richards]

24. Now THERE is a real Death Panel...get it right.

[Bozita]

25. Yup. Somebody needs to tell Sen. Grassley what a real death panel looks like!

It looks like a for-profit health insurance company.

[Brickbat]

26. Crystal Lee Sutton died in 2009; this link is two years old.

[a kennedy]

28. So???? She is the woman who actually started the union movement

and two years ago or yesterday it's still distressing how she died...... I weep for her and her family even now, two years after her death. :cry: :cry: :cry:

[Brickbat]

29. She did not "start" the "union movement," and I think it's odd that this is being treated like it's

news. It's not. It's a goddamn shame, but it's not news.

[hfojvt]

30. but this isn't LBN and it is news to me

Or at least I had forgotten it from two years ago. I don't even remember hearing that the movie was based on real events.

[Name removed]

42. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Moostache]

31. Doesn't matter if its 2 years, 2 months, 2 weeks or 2 days!

The fact that America, the REAL America - not the fantasy "greatest country EVAH!!" America of Tea-baggers and morans - allows patients to die while seeking care that is already available and effective but not "covered" is an outrage until its no longer true.

This country could be so much more than it is, so much more than almost anyone can imagine or even dare to dream, but we cannot break free from the grip of money-infested politics and class warfare among the exploited instead of against the exploiters....it doesn't matter if they are currently doing this or have done so in the past, what matters is whether or not systemic changes have been made to prevent it from continuing to happen!

[valerief]

55. Oh, yeah. And insurance companies don't do this anymore. NOT! nt

[midnight]

27. K&R No denial for medical treatment every should be allowed in this country...

[pansypoo53219]

32. sort of like a DEATH PANEL. and RATION(ING.

nt

[TeamsterDem]

36. A true role model for all. RIP Norma Rae. nt

[DeSwiss]

37. K&R n/t

[Desertrose]

38. K&R. Words fail me here.....so sad. nt

[countryjake]

39. As a former member of the ACTWU, may she rest in Peace, but she's been gone for awhile now...

I sent donations to her treatment years ago (as one who also no longer has medical insurance) thru my Union connections, there was quite a response from the organized working class to help Crystal.

I worked in mills during the seventies, operated those spinners like they show in Sally Field's movie...a person needed roller skates to keep up with the empty spools flying off.

When I'd first heard of her illness, I figured she'd been stricken with Brown Lung, which is what many from the industry die from (I think she died with a brain tumor). Sometimes the lint in the air would be so thick, we couldn't see five feet in front of us. That was in the cotton room, where the machines were 135 feet long, each woman responsible for two sides of two different machines. Since we couldn't see the spindles getting full or the spools running low (like we could in the synthetic depts.), we had to constantly walk the aisle to make sure there wouldn't be any break in the spinning, to tie in a new spool, or begin a new spindle. It was sheer hell, worked mostly seven days a week, if the supervisors even caught you sitting down in that cotton room, you could be fired. Or for spitting.

Those of us who worked our fingers to the bone since we were young haven't a chance of being able to pay for all of the multitude of maladies that plague us. Any insurance is a joke.

And always think of the spinners now, whenever you don that soft comfy cotton shirt or blouse...the mills ran away from our Union shops in this country, long ago, but somewhere there are still people who cannot see five feet in front of their faces cause of the snowy fibers floating in the air they breath, running up and down checking spindles and spools, night and day.

[AikidoSoul]

88. And cotton is toxic -- it is the crop that is sprayed more often than any other.

Pesticides, defoliants, fungicides. Those of us with chemical sensitivities have to either buy organically grown cotton products, or we have to use isopropyl alcohol and ammonia to remove the synthetic poisons from new cotton fabrics than come into our homes.

[reggie the dog]

40. were she living in france she would be alive today and receiving the

best treatement that france and all its people could provide for her. i dont think i can ever come back and live in the usa again, and i was born in the usa, france is my adoptive homeland. how in the hell can the most wealthy country in the world treat its people this way?

[BEZERKO]

41. They delay you and

fight you till the treatment you get is too late. My autistic son is 5yrs and 4mos, still not receiving the therapies he needs like speech and Applied Behavioral Analysis, and his window is starting to close...

[orbitalman]

43. Just try to charge the "person," the insurance co, with MURDER.

This is like a very terrible joke.

[lunatica]

45. Rest in Peace Norma Rae Sutton

[myrna minx]

46. K&R n/t

[Vinca]

47. Murder by insurance company.

[riverbendviewgal]

53. She made her mark in History.

I admired her so much. Such a shame she had to fight to get treatment from the insurance company. Her last chapter in life she was fighting for justice.
My 26 year old son died 12 years ago this month of the same type of brain tumor Ted Kennedy had. My son had the same treatment as Kennedy (I read up on it) Kevin lived 18 months. 5 percent of those with this tumor live past two years. The cost for treatment up here for my son...ZERO. And no fighting insurance companies.

[FailureToCommunicate]

56. "UNION"

RIP Crystal Lee.

[PatSeg]

57. I thought this was a recent event

and was surprised to see it was an article from 2009. It still was an important story, but wish there had been an indication that this wasn't a current "news" story, as I was about to cross-post it as one.

[onpatrol98]

66. Good point...in terms of cross posting

I wouldn't mind seeing an update. Are we any better off today than we were as a country when Norma Rae died in 2009. That would be an interesting read. How has the Obama Health Care Plan changed the country for the better. You don't see much written about it. Would her chances have been better today?

[PatSeg]

68. That would be interesting

and the administration doesn't seem to be very good at getting that message out there. Meanwhile, most of what we hear about the Affordable Care Act has come from the right and of course it is all negative. Most people still don't understand the bill and how it does or will affect them. This white house needs some really good PR people.

[Zoeisright]

58. That's not murder "in a way". It's premeditated murder.

And I demand someone be charged for it.

[Yo_Mama]

61. She was on Medicare

Maybe she was on a Medicare Advantage plan, but she was on Medicare.

Medicare does allow experimental treatments, and two months sounds about right for their approval process. The standard treatment for meningioma is watching and surgery to remove troublesome tumors. She had an odd variant for which there is no known treatment.

But seriously, the poor lady was on Medicare, and I think it is important to know this, especially since other people like the woman who writes this blog are trying to make sure that Medicare patients can get off-label treatments:
http://gbyay.blogspot.com/2011/04/please-help-me-and-others-get-this-hr.html

[joeybee12]

65. RIP Norma rae...very sad...

Since corporations are apparently people, then this insurance company is capable of burning in hell, which I hope they do.

[DonCoquixote]

67. The REAL Fuckign death panel.

And how much you want to bet that the Tea party types are lighting cigars and pouring champagne? If they could have simply stood Norma Rae before the firing squad, they would have. Instead, they went for slow torture here.

[sarcasmo]

69. Medicare for all, now! This for profit insurance industry is killing way to many people.

Greedy fuckers.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

k&r

:hi:

miss your beatles :( but, love your cat :loveya:

:hug:

[Tuesday Afternoon]

70. k&r

:hi:

miss your beatles :( but, love your cat :loveya:

:hug:

[femrap]

71. Again, Norma Rae shows

us the cruelty of the Greedy Masters.

Just heartbreaking. :cry:

[DollyM]

73. why wouldn't she be covered by Medicare at 68?

I realize Medicare is also only 80 percent but she could also apply for Medicaid. My 83 year old mother is going through chemo right now and burned through her savings after Medicare paid so I got her on Medicaid.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

74. Corporate Insurance Execs = Death Panels n/t

[kestrel91316]

76. Murder for profit.

[Mr Deltoid]

79. At it's core, yes

This is exactly what it is. Thom Hartmann talks about the sociopathic nature of bankers and health insurance CEOs. Money destroys everything it touches.

[Liberal_in_LA]

77. too bad.

:-(

[defendandprotect]

78. K/R -- Truly brave woman -- !!

Don't know enough about her actually and will try to read the link later -- !!

Sad --

[pam4water]

80. Wow that just codifies how far we've slid backwards.

[lebkuchen]

81. US "greatest country in the world????"

Hardee fuckin' har har.

Cuba could do better.

[mother earth]

83. Some things MUST be gov't sponsored, no question.

Norma Rae was an American hero, is this how we treat our heroes? Apparently so, with rationed or non-existent health care. Isn't this how a society is judged? We score zero. Things have got to change!

[a2liberal]

86. And these are the insurance companies we are giving more power too

with lots of new customers who have no choice. So now I'm forced to pay the insurance companies and then they kill me anyway. More money for the companies to spend on lobbying to keep themselves entrenched. And what baffles me most is the people here who DEFEND the entrenchment of this system where insurance companies have an explicit profit motive to denying you the care you need. You can't even spew that libertarian invisible hand "companies that deny care will lose customers and die" bullshit anymore once everyone is forced to buy from what will effectively be a cartel.

[tawadi]

90. Very sad to hear this. And to hear she fought uphill battles to the end. eom

[Mrs. Ted Nancy]

92. She died two years ago.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6529637

Posting this story now doesn't make her death any less tragic. I'm just wondering why it is being posted again.

[MrsBrady]

99. thank you -

I remember that thread and no one seemed to notice then.

[davidwparker]

93. K&R

[Kurovski]

94. K&R

[RogerShuler]

97. I've had . . .

quite a bit of experience with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama in my state. Disturbing stuff. Recently found court documents alleging that BC/BS in Alabama has used federal Medicare dollars for its private insurance business. Still looking into it.